Cat's Eye in the road Cat's Eye in space

 So, the story goes on December 3^rd, 1933, a cold and foggy night, Percy Shaw a blacksmith in Halifax West Yorkshire is driving home. This is before streetlights and road markings were introduced.

 As he drives slowly along the road he is startled when the headlights of his car are brilliantly reflected by the eyes of a cat sitting beside the road. Peercy Shaw then has a flash of inspiration and possibly one of the greatest contributions to road safety in the 20^th century.

That at least is the romantic version of the invention of the Cat’s Eye. But Shaw is smart enough not to allow the cold truth to de mist a good story.  He patents the Cat’s eye reflecting road stud in 1934 and develops over the next few years. Nothing much happens until World War 2 when the black out makes driving even more dangerous.

The in 1947 a junior transport minister, Jim Callaghan introduces the cat’s eye nationwide. Percy Shaw’s company Reflecting Roadstuds Ltd manufactures and exports a million cat’s eyes a year at its peak.

Percy Shaw will become one of Britain’s most eccentric millionaires, he wasn’t interested in luxuries except 2 Rolls Royce cars and a cellar of Worthington’s India Pale Ale.

The cat’s eye still is regarded as one of the greatest ever British designs.

Is there an astronomical connection, of course there is, because there is the Cat's Eye nebula in space. It is in  the constellation of Draco the Dragon at around 3,000 light years from the Earth. It is to faint to be seen with the naked eye, you would need a telescope to find it.

IT was discovered by William Herschel in February 1786, earlier in 1781 he had discovered the planet we now call Uranus. He described the nebula looking planet like, and the term a planetary nebula was born .Planetary nebula have nothing whatsoever to do with planets. Planetary nebula are stars approaching the ends of their lives, they are puffing away what remains of their gases into space. This is what makes them look planet like in appearance. Our Sun will go through this stage of its evolution in around 3.5 billion years time. 

If you go on line and search for the Cat's Eye nebula you will see pictures that show it does look like  the eye of a cat.

William Herschel did not name the Cat’s Eye nebula this was done after pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed tis true nature.

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